Eligible But Disenfranchised, below is the Ondo Youths Who Won’t Vote as they lament exclusion.
Rowland Olateju, a resident of Shagari Estate in Akure, Ondo State capital, was filled with disappointment and sadness while speaking with our correspondent because he will not vote in today’s election.
He will not vote because the Continuous Voter Registration exercise was not held after he turned 18 on March 24 this year.
Speaking with our correspondent at a business centre located along Oyemekun Road, Akure, where he works as an attendant, the teenager, who completed his secondary education last year, said at least 10 of his friends who had attained voting age would also not vote, saying disenfranchising them was another indication of the failure to plan by relevant authorities.
Like Rowland, Mercy Asefeniomo, a Senior Secondary School 3 student of a public school in Akure, has attained voting age.
But she does not have the voter card, and as a result, will not also participate in today’s election, despite her eagerness to vote for the first time in her life.
Olateru said he received several text messages, as well as calls from candidates asking him to vote for them, adding that based on campaign promises and programmes of those standing elections, he had already chosen his favourite who would have been rewarded with a vote.
“But my vote won’t be part of what my candidate will get in the poll. I still pray my candidate wins. After I followed his campaign activities for a few days, I fell in love and I would have voted for him.
“Unfortunately, I won’t vote. I don’t want to imagine the number of youths in this state who are of voting age but will not vote in this election because there was no registration of new voters,” he lamented.
He further said he had contemplated registering during the last Continue Voter Registration held before 2019 general elections in the state.
“But I did not eventually register, because I felt since I would be 18 years of age in a couple of months, I should obtain a voter card when I would not be scared of being discovered to be underage.
“Now that I am 18, I could not register to vote and I will not vote. We had expected the registration of new voters before the governorship poll.
“My guardian was constantly talking about it, but when it was not mentioned again by INEC, we all forgot about it. My enthusiasm in voting was however reawakened when the campaign for this election started and we started hearing politicians speak about their plans,” Olateru said.
Another teenager who would not vote is Mercy, despite being above 18 years of age.
For Asefeniomo, the electoral body did not explain why new voters had not been registered ahead of the poll and advised that other means of registration without the registrants of having to gather in large numbers should be in place to avert a reccurrence of the situation.
A 20-year-old resident, Esther Funminiyi, who is a tailoring apprentice in Akure, will not also vote in today’s poll because she delayed her registration.
She said she had relocated to Akure, her hometown, from Kogi State in August 2018, adding that she could have registered as a voter in her neighbourhood during the time, but for the large crowd that she saw at the registration centre when she made attempts on two occasions.
“Because of that, I began to procrastinate. I was a bit new in the state when the registration was done in my area in 2019 but I made an attempt to register twice, but there were some people already in the queue waiting to be registered on those two occasions,” she said.
Damilola Oluyemi is another eligible and enthusiastic youth who has reached voting age but will not vote in the governorship poll because new voters were not registered by INEC.
The 19-year-old university admission seeker lamented that many youths in her category would be stripped of their right to vote, owing to non-registration of new voters, stressing that the development would impact on the result of the poll, especially in urban centres where most of the eligible but disenfranchised youths resided.
Asked whether she knew why new voters were not registered, Damilola said one of her sisters who made an enquiry about it at the INEC head office was told that the coronavirus pandemic prevented the commission from holding the Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
Apart from youths who just turned 18 but will not participate in the election, many residents who had registered but had yet to collect their PVCs will not also vote because of the suspension of the distribution of PVCs by INEC.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ondo State, Mr Rufus Akeju, had at a stakeholders’ meeting for the governorship poll held in Akure on Wednesday, said, “It is extremely important for me to inform you that the commission has suspended the Continuous Voter Registration exercise and the implication is that the window of opportunity for new registrants, distribution of Permanent Voter Cards, transfer of registration and replacement of lost or defaced PVCs has been shut for the meantime owing to the ravaging pandemic.”
The REC also said the number of registered voters stood at 1,822, 346, adding that a total of 1,478,460 PVCs had been collected while 372,888 PVCs had yet to be collected.